Pence calls Biden labeling Xi a dictator ‘a statement of fact’

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that President Biden’s labeling of Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator was a “statement of fact.”

CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked Pence whether he agreed with Biden describing Xi as a dictator to which the GOP presidential candidate answered, “I think it’s a statement of fact.” Pence’s remarks are in strong contrast to former president Trump, who described Xi as “top of the line” and a “brilliant man” in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this year.

Pence said that “there’s no more effective way to send a deafening message to communist China to check their military ambitions in the Asia Pacific” than supplying Ukraine with what it needs to end Russia’s invasion of the country.

 “I guarantee you President Xi is watching what’s happening in Ukraine very carefully,” Pence said. “We give the Ukrainians, much more quickly than Joe Biden’s doing now, we give them what they need to win this fight to repel the Russian invasion”

He also dodged a question that asked if he would commit to sending troops to Taiwan in the case of a Chinese invasion, adding that there is “no advantage to say what you would or wouldn’t do.”

“The United States of America should continue to be providing … Taiwan with the military means to defend themselves,” he added. “What we want is a policy of deterrence.”